CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Schiff

Interview

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COOPER: Yes. Jim Acosta, appreciate it.

Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff chairs the House Intelligence Committee. He's got some thoughts on this. He joins us now.

Chairman Schiff, you say the president's emergency declaration is plainly unconstitutional. What about rises to that level, in your opinion?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, it's hard to imagine a worse case for national emergency than a problem that has been diminishing over the years, that the intelligence heads didn't even recognize when they're outlining the threats to the country, and most significantly, that the Congress has deliberated about, reached a resolution on in terms of what the Congress believes is appropriate border security, and the president didn't get what he wanted from the Congress and has decided that's some kind of emergency.

If it was an emergency every time the president of the United States couldn't get what they wanted from Congress, we would be in a constant state of emergency. So it's the worst possible case, and it will fail.

But I have to say this. What has had our democracy on such shaky ground for the past two years has not just been the unconstitutional acts of the president, but the fact that Congress has not been willing to stand up to him, that in particular the president's party has not been willing to stand up to him. And the fact that Mitch McConnell would warn him privately, but then do a complete 180 and publicly embrace this shows you just the kind of capitulation that is endangering the rule of law in our system of checks and balances.

COOPER: I mean, you've called on your Republican colleagues to expose the move. We've already heard some of them expressing their reservations about it. But do you expect actually any condemnation to go beyond simply some statements of disapproval?

SCHIFF: Well, look, if pass is prologue, we can't expect very much. There is a complete and I think it's a groupthink lack of political courage in the GOP right now. There is not a single member I think of either body that thinks this is a good idea, except maybe politically and even then I think they think it's a poor idea. But they lack the courage of their convictions.

I'm not particularly interested in private reservations or even public murmurings. We do need them to vote their oath of the Constitution, and, again, there is not a lot of reason for optimism. But they will be put to the test. There should be a resolution of disapproval, and they will be forced to go on the record of whether they're going to defend the Constitution or they're going to merely do the president's will.

COOPER: Speaker Pelosi today said the Democrats are reviewing their options to challenge it. How should that happen do you think? In the courts? Legislatively? Both?

SCHIFF: It will certainly be challenged in the courts and it will be stopped in the courts. I think it is likely, although speaking just for myself and not as a representative of the leadership that we will have an opportunity to vote and disapprove of what the president is doing. You know, while that may pass in the House, I would hope would pass in the House, the Senate would be a closer call. But I do think people should be put on record. And for all of those members that have criticized presidents in the past for overreach, none of them have done anything like what this president is attempting to do that not only to not only worry them, but it ought to prompt them to action.

COOPER: Do you think the president actually cares whether or not it passes in the courts as long as he seen as having attempted it? He can then say in 2020, look, I tried my best. It's the Democrats and all these people just took us to court, and, you know, they killed news the courts, but I tried.

SCHIFF: I don't think he cares at all whether this passes constitutional muster. Certainly doesn't care whether it's constitutional. But he also doesn't care what happens when it gets challenged in the courts.

All he really wants to do is present some fig leaf. He is getting less funding today than he would have if he hadn't shut down the government. He is getting criticized by the same conservatives that caused him to shut down the government to begin with. So this is a political maneuver, and really not more than that in terms of the president, but in terms of the congress, we ought to care much more about it than that, because the precedent that it sets is just terrible. COOPER: Yes, as you mention, Mitch McConnell had advised reportedly

the president not to declare the national emergency, then today we saw him take to the Senate floor, endorse this move.

[20:10:04] Are you clear at all how he got from point A to point B?

SCHIFF: Well, the same way he has so many times in the past, and that is, you know, the obligation to our institutions is very secondary. What is primary for him is keeping control of the majority in the Senate. And if that means that he's going to go along with the president on a plainly unconstitutional act, apparently he is willing to do that.

I think that's a terrible disservice. But look, for someone who kept the Supreme Court seat vacant for over a year, with the same object of energizing his base, keeping his position as majority leader, it can't be all that surprising.

COOPER: Congressman Schiff, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

SCHIFF: Thank you.

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